Friday, July 6, 2012

David & Amalek

In between Saul’s visit to the witch at Endor and the record
of his death, we can find the story of David and his defeat of the
Amalekites. It is quite interesting that the author of the first book of
Samuel saw fit to arrange the material in this way, whether or not the
arrangement represents a precise chronological progression of events within
Israel’s history (though the beginning of the second book of Samuel indicates
that such is the case). At Endor, Saul has Samuel tell him about his
pending death and the re-subjugation of Israel, connecting both with his not
carrying out the Lord’s “fierce anger against the Amalekites” (1 Samuel
28:18b). From there, the story of the book progresses to the story of
David being rejected and sent away by the Philistine leaders, which makes for a
curious juxtaposition against Samuel’s declaration that Saul will be brought
down by those same Philistines.

After David had been sent away from the Philistines, as they
were about to go to war with Israel, “David and his men came to Ziklag”
(30:1a). There, we find that “the Amalekites,” who had not been
completely annihilated by Saul, “had raided the Negev and Ziklag. They
attacked Ziklag and burned it. They took captive the women who were in
it, from the youngest to the oldest, but they did not kill anyone. They
simply carried them off and went on their way” (30:1b-2). Obviously, this
only came about because Saul had failed in his duties. The Amalekites had
been left alive to complete (albeit on a smaller scale) that which they had
attempted when they had encountered Israel on their way out of Egypt.
Here, David and his men, representative of Israel, were exodus-ing what could
be referred to as their Philistine exile, when Amalek attacked. This is
somewhat congruent to Amalek’s attack of Israel while they were exodus-ing
Egypt. While we can see, in the raiding and the burning and the taking
captive, something akin to the curses of Deuteronomy, it is clear that these
are not being conducted at the hand of God against His wayward people.
What we should see is God providing David, as a deliverer within Israel, with a
pretext for the continued efforts against a people that were destined for
complete destruction.

Moving on, we read that “When David and his men came to the city,
they found it burned… Then David and the men who were with him wept
loudly until they could weep no more… each man grieved bitterly over his sons
and daughters” (30:3-4,6c). Even though David was suffering right along
with his men, having had his two wives taken, “the men were thinking of stoning
him” (30:6b), in a vivid reminder of the murmuring and complaining against
Moses, by Israel, in the wilderness following the exodus. Just as Israel
wanted to return to their Egyptian exile and their subjugation, so David’s men
wanted to subjugate him to death. However, “David,” like Moses, when
faced with this adversity, “drew strength from the Lord his God” (30:6d).
“David inquired of the Lord, saying, ‘Should I pursue this raiding band?
Will I overtake them?’” (30:8a) The response that came to David was
“Pursue, for you will certainly overtake them and carry out a rescue”
(30:8b).

When David did indeed catch up with this group of
Amalekites, “They were eating and drinking and enjoying themselves because of
all the loot they had taken from the land of the Philistines and from the land
of Judah” (30:16b). Though this could easily have been viewed in
accordance with the Deuteronomic curses that stressed Israel’s loss of “loot,”
David clearly saw it as an opportunity to enter into the blessings commensurate
with faithfulness to God’s covenantal commands, so he attacked. “David
struck them down from twilight until the following evening” (30:17a). It
is said that “None of them escaped, with the exception of four hundred young
men who got away on camels” (30:17b). Not only does this remind us of the
promised blessing that Israel’s enemies would flee before them (Deuteronomy
28:7), but it also speaks to the woeful inadequacy of Saul’s striking down of
Amalek, especially if there were so many Amalekites that even after
experiencing being struck down for an extended period of time, there were still
so many men to escape, and so many camels on which to escape, even as it is
said that “None of them escaped.” This speaks to there being a
significantly large number of Amalekites with which David had to deal, as he
attempted to complete Saul’s mission.

Among other things, this should bring to mind Israel’s
conquest of the Promised Land under Joshua, and the ongoing (yet never
completely successful) attempts to rid the land of the people by which it was
inhabited, and which God had commanded His people to drive out. Just as
Amalek became this ongoing source of problems for Israel, so too would the
people of the land be an ongoing source of frustration---not just by their
presence, but through the deleterious effects that they would have upon God’s
people and upon what had been ordained as their proper worship.

Reveling in the blessings of the Lord’s deliverance, David
provided rescue. It is reported that “David retrieved everything the
Amalekites had taken” (30:18a). In a sense, this is the point at which
David becomes king, as the Amalekites, figuratively, had taken the kingship
from Saul. Where Saul had failed, David had truly begun to succeed.
When a division arose concerning the sharing of the plunder, David takes
up the language of exodus, speaking of the Lord and saying “He has protected us
and delivered into our hands the raiding party that came against us”
(30:23b). He had rescued women and children from foreign subjugation, and
now, following Saul’s death which immediately follows within this historical
record, David is going to be installed as king, and used by God to continue the
redemption and rescue of His people.